Leucocasia gigantea (Syn. Colocasia gigantea)

Leucocasia gigantea

Syn.

Colocasia gigantea

kol-oh-KAY-see-uh jy-GAN-tee-uh

Leucocasia gigantea (Blume) Schott. was named and described by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott in Oesterreichisches Botanisches Wochenblatt in 1857.

Colocasia gigantea (Blume) Hook. f. is the correct and accepted scientific name for this species of Colocasia. It was first described as such by Joseph Dalton Hooker in The Flora of British India in 1893. It was first described as Caladium giganteum by Carl (Karl) Ludwig von Blume in Catalogus in 1823.

I am not sure when, but recent testing confirmed that the Colocasia gigantea was more closely related to Alocasia than Colocasia. But, since there were other unique characteristics, it was reclassified as Leucocasia gigantea as it was named in 1857. Now the species is back in a genus all by itself for now.

Some information also suggests that Leucocasia gigantea is a natural cross between Colocasia esculenta and Alocasia macrorrhizos. That would be strange because its flowers and the way they grow is nothing like either species…

I bought my first Colocasia gigantea from Wellspring Gardens in the spring of 2009. It was a very small starter plant and never did grow that large.

Although the Colocasia gigantea and Colocasia gigantea ‘Thailand Giant’ are the same species, their growth and habit are different. Brian Williams of Brian’s Botanicals gives a pretty accurate description of the difference between the two, so you can just read what he says HERE.

I hope you enjoyed this page and maybe found it useful. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, I would like to hear from you. Please click on “like” if you visited this page. It helps us bloggers stay motivated. 🙂 You can check out the links below for further reading. The links take you directly to the genus and species of this plant. Some of the information below is not up-to-date and still use Colocasia gigantea. It takes time for some websites to catch up.